Kiang named ‘Researcher of the Year’ by Small TimesPhysicist recognized for new method of mapping protein folding

BY JADE BOYDRice News Staff

Rice University physicist Ching-Hwa Kiang has been recognized as “Researcher of the Year” in Small Times magazine’s annual “Best of Small Tech Awards” competition.Kiang, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, joined Rice in 2002.

CHING-HWA KIANG

The award recognizes a new research method Kiang unveiled this year that offers scientists an innovative way of finding out how proteins get their shape based on how they unfold when pulled apart.

The research, which appeared in Physical Review Letters, describes a new way of probing protein energy states. It’s the first experimental method that can reveal the slope and height of the energy barrier that a protein must overcome when it folds. Kiang hopes it will allow scientists to better understand how proteins fold and misfold, as they do in some diseases.

“Other experimental methods give researchers a pretty clear picture of the energy states at the beginning and the end — the two equilibrium states,” Kiang said. “Our approach helps fill in what happens in between, when the system is between folded and unfolded.”

Kiang was presented with the Small Times award at the magazine’s annual NanoCon International conference and exhibition Nov. 15 in Santa Clara, Calif. The awards ceremony spotlighted the nanotech industry’s biggest successes, top companies and industry leaders of 2007.

Rice University physicist Ching-Hwa Kiang has been recognized as “Researcher of the Year” in Small Times magazine’s annual Best of Small Tech Awards competition.

About Jade Boyd

Jade Boyd is science editor and associate director of news and media relations in Rice University's Office of Public Affairs.